Jacqueline’s Journey:
Jacqueline’s focus on patient accommodation began with a deeply personal experience six years ago. She was having lunch with her one-year-old son in Chicago, where she now lives, when a text from her mom arrived: “I got the call!” After three long years on the organ transplant waitlist, this was the moment they had all begun to fear might never come.
By late afternoon, Jacqueline was on a flight to Vancouver with her husband, young son, and another baby on the way. Her father had already rushed her mother from Kelowna to Vancouver. The tears had started at lunch and hadn’t stopped. The mix of fear, hope, and sheer relief was overwhelming.
For the first week, Jacqueline’s family of three, along with her dad and sister, stayed in a downtown Vancouver hotel. They took turns at the ICU and later rotated shifts in Vancouver as her mom recovered over the following weeks. Hotel bills piled up, and it became hard not to wonder, “How do people afford this?”
When they weren’t at the hospital, they were scouring the city for a furnished apartment. A three-month stay in Vancouver was mandatory for double lung transplant recipients who didn’t live in the Lower Mainland. The cost was entirely out of pocket, and logistically, it began to feel impossible. Jacqueline found herself chasing Airbnb listings priced anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000 a month. In one instance, she was told a unit was hers, only for the agent to later admit they had rented it to someone else – likely for a better return and likely not a patient.
She couldn’t stop asking: how is this acceptable? Living in the United States, Jacqueline often heard how great the “free healthcare” system must be back home in Canada. But this wasn’t great. It wasn’t free. And it would have been impossible without a support team scraping the internet for leads and trekking across the city to view potential rentals. Jacqueline knew Vancouver, which helped. But what if you didn’t?
The beginning of Housing is Healthcare
After a successful transplant and a difficult but beautiful recovery, Jacqueline’s mom returned home deeply grateful to her donor family, with only one lingering concern: housing. There had been no way to plan for it. The uncertainty about where she would live during her recovery had weighed heavily on her mind throughout the years she spent on the transplant waitlist.
Wanting to give back and prevent others from facing the same stress, Jacqueline began to explore the critical link between housing and healthcare. From that effort, the initiative Housing is Healthcare was born.
At first, she was surprised to learn that no single entity was responsible for helping patients find housing when required to travel for medical care. A hospital social worker even told her directly, “That’s not my job.” Determined to change that, Jacqueline began reaching out, starting with names she had found in articles, including Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry and BC Rural Health Network’s Executive Director, Paul Adams. To her relief, she discovered people who not only understood the issue, but genuinely wanted to help.
On January 10, 2024, Housing is Healthcare convened a meeting at Vancouver City Hall. From that, a coalition took shape, followed by a successful research initiative led by Dr. Jude Kornelsen. Soon after, a resolution supporting patient housing was passed at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) entitled “Housing is Healthcare”!
Building a Hotel of Hope
With the support of exceptional and reputable partners, including Dr. Jude Kornelsen, the BC Rural Health Network (BCRHN), Wynne Chiu, a clinical nurse specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Asmaa Anwar, a heart transplant recipient and powerful patient advocate, (and others) the vision of a “Hotel of Hope” is now taking shape.
A demand analysis is set for completion by the end of summer, aiming to determine how many patients require housing in Vancouver on any given night. Using data from Vancouver Coastal Health, Providence, the Provincial Health Services Authority, the First Nations Health Authority, and a review of programs such as the BC Family Residence Program, this analysis will provide the foundation for a comprehensive business plan.
The plan will assess viable options, whether through new construction or repurposing space within an existing development. From there, the project will move toward identifying funding sources, building partnerships, and securing investments to turn the Hotel of Hope into a lifesaving reality.
Jacqueline believes this goal is best achieved through collaboration with government to create programming that fills the gaps in existing support systems. Working together, stakeholders could design a range of operating models, ideally enabling medical appointments to be coordinated alongside accommodation bookings, scheduled directly on the patient’s behalf.
This kind of integrated approach lifts the burden from patients, offers support rather than stress, and acknowledges that no one should be expected to navigate serious illness alone in an unfamiliar and expensive city.
Surviving a major illness, surgery, or treatment is hard enough. Being homeless or financially devastated in the process is simply unacceptable.
Funding is important, but the real key is embedding support services into the healthcare system itself. There are already strong models in place, such as JoeAnna’s House in Kelowna, Ronald McDonald House, Canadian Cancer Society lodges, and others. These facilities are designed to wrap around patients and families, aligning medical schedules with accommodation and emotional support.
But these examples are too few, often at full capacity, and not available to all who need them. The gaps are wide, and patients are falling through.
Now imagine what could be possible on a provincial scale: housing support for patients traveling to Vancouver from every corner of British Columbia. Imagine setting a national example and truly fulfilling the promise of free, universal, public healthcare.
Imagine Hotels of Hope!
Yet Another Community Champion in our Midst
In a powerful show of support for rural health equity, Jacqueline Podewils has recently taken on the role of co-chair of the BC Rural Health Network’s fundraising committee. Her commitment will help guide the development of a sustainable funding model to support the long-term success of the BCRHN.
In addition to her leadership as the founder of Housing is Healthcare, Jacqueline is also a full-time mother who has stepped back from a successful career in the fashion tech industry. Still driven by a passion for building and creating, she never imagined that her next chapter would be as meaningful as the Hotel of Hope initiative.
We are deeply grateful to Jacqueline for her energy, insight, and unwavering dedication. Her support and exceptional drive are helping shape a more equitable future for patients across British Columbia.
